Is Unhappiness a Disease?

All of us get unhappy! Moreover, all of us are sometimes anxious! Life can be hard and things frequently go wrong. But the way this dilemma is explained on television is misleading. There, it is regularly implied that many of us suffer from a low-level mental illness for which we require a medication.
You’ve seen the ads. You know; the ones about how a new drug can rescue us from our depression. Sometimes they show a little black cloud that can be tamed by taking they right prescription. Sometimes they merely illustrate how cheerful we will become once our melancholy has lifted.
According to the more medically oriented of these commercials, a chemical imbalance in our brains somehow causes us to go off track. The experts aren’t quite sure how this works, but the pharmaceutical companies assure us their product will eliminate what ails us. If we will only take it, it will alleviate our distress.
Yet have you noticed that these promises are hedged with qualifications? There are those little provisos that indicate “it is thought” that neurotransmitters are the cause? The fact is that medicine cannot certify that it understands or can repair the miseries to which most of us are occasionally subject.
That is because many of them are not medical. Despite repeated declarations to the contrary, they are not diseases. If they were, the authorities would not have to keep reassuring us that they are.
Consider the measles. Is there anyone who doubts that this is a disease? When, for instance, was the last time someone tried to persuade you it was? We know a virus causes the malady. Moreover, we know how to prevent it. But what of unhappiness? Is it in the same league?
My latest book (my eleventh) is entitled: On Loss and Losing: Beyond the Medical Model of Personal Distress and it offers an alternative explanation of emotional suffering. As a sociologist, I am not an expert on physiological difficulties, but as a former clinician and a professor of sociology I am knowledgeable about how problems in living can create internal turmoil.
As I said before, life is difficult. It throws up a myriad of challenges. Often we find a way to manage, but more commonly that we might wish, it is hard to figure out what has gone wrong—or how to fix it. This is where clinical sociology can be of assistance.
All of us experience losses. We regularly endure defeats in our quest to endure. These, however, are painful. That is why many of us swallow pills in order to cover up our suffering. But in disguising our difficulties—even from ourselves—we make it difficult to overcome them.
Sadly, the defeats we experience leave scars. We human beings want to be winners. We all hate to lose. Nevertheless, from time to time we all do and must therefore deal with these reverses. What is worse, some of these setbacks cannot be converted into victories. We must consequently learn to let go of what we can never have. This is one of the central truths about life.
Mind you, there are genuine mental illnesses that require medical interventions. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorders fall into this category. Even some major depressions have biological origins. But not everything currently treated by physicians is, in fact, a medical disorder. Some are simply problems in living.
The trick is to be able to tell the difference. It is also necessary to find the courage to confront our personal demons. Unfortunately, if we do not, they do not disappear. Medications can keep them at bay, but these rarely do more than suppress them. Actually moving on takes more effort.
Modern medicine is a wonder. It has enabled us to live decades longer than our ancestors. But it cannot do everything. If you are a baseball player having difficulty hitting a curve ball, you do not require a doctor. What you need is a good hitting coach.
Correspondingly, if you are suffering from the pangs of loss or losing, you may not need a psychiatrist, but an expert in these matters (for example, a clinical psychologist, clinical sociologist, clinical social worker, or marriage and family counselor). The starting point in figuring out whom to consult is understanding what is the matter. Only then is it possible to make a sound decision about the way forward.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University